


Lady of the Waters

by allonsytotumblr



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Ocean, Women In Power
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 12:25:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17787368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allonsytotumblr/pseuds/allonsytotumblr
Summary: "To her do mariners cry..."Uinen is anything but weak.





	Lady of the Waters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zdenka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zdenka/gifts).



Ulmo is the tsunami, the crashing wave, the hard water slapping the rocks with a fine mist of white spray. But Uinen is the tidepool, teeming with tiny aquatic life, the shallow body of water with unexpected depths, and the silent current, unseen- deadly.

The sea is filled with animals and plants because of her. She made the sharks and turtles, the blind fish that dwell on the ocean floor, the jellyfish that wash up on beaches with their balloon bodies and poison tentacles. The ocean’s song of life was her writing.

The ages pass. Elves, men, they are not so different to her. They both cannot breathe in her kingdom, even if some venture out on to its surface. Underwater she is removed and yet present all the same. It is she who receives the bodies of the drowned, dead by accident, or by their own actions. The blood of the killed after the kinslaying is tasted by her, red and both Teleri and Noldor.

Uinen is not so known to peoples who live inland of the sea, but many types of water belong to her- not only salty. Her spirit is living in rivers and lakes, discovered by lost travelers in need of water. She is in the underground spring, flowing along in a dark cave, undisturbed. When it rains over thirsty crops, and when the water ceases lest it flood the adjacent village, she is there.

Uinen is the calm that lies on the sea, when the water is so still it looks like glass, and reflects the sky endlessly back upon itself. It is she who calms her husband for his spirit is raw, powerful, unchecked and he does not think of the damage he causes

Peace, Ulmo, peace. She calls to him, and though water is always in her throat, he hears and listens.

She can always restrain him, until Numenor, and even then she would not have stretched forth her hand had those men asked.

The city sinks beneath the waves.

The wood decays, the bodies rot, the once proud palace halls become shelter for fish, coral grows on the submerged roofs.

This is what she loves most about the sea. This is the power that she stretched forth, the reclaiming power of water, eroding beaches, tunneling through rock, rounding edges. Water can be held back, but not forever. It will have its way, and go where it wills.

 

My art of her done back in 2016.


End file.
